


Pain, War, Sacrifice.

by MercenaryKay



Series: The Dancing Rose [4]
Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: F/F, Final Battle, Past Relationship(s), War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-23
Updated: 2019-09-23
Packaged: 2020-10-26 20:37:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20748398
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MercenaryKay/pseuds/MercenaryKay
Summary: The professor had lost the only person she had left. Driven by rage and anger she destroyed Fodlan before arriving before the Empress herself.





	Pain, War, Sacrifice.

The woman stood in an open field. Her conquest had lead her to one final battle. The empress Edelgard. She stood silently, her blade covered in blood. "I will avenge you. They will understand pain just as everyone else has. Just as you had to."

A lone figure approached, with a blade and bright red armour.

"Empress Edelgard, finally we meet again. I hope you are ready, I do not intend on holding back." The woman said walking towards her opponent.

"..." Edelgard spoke now words, but approached with a look of determination. She would stop this menace no matter the cost.

"I would assume you would at least welcome your dear old professor." The woman said. "I am the chosen warrior of the Goddess and I am here to put an end to your tyranny."

Edelgard remained silent as she unsheathed her weapon. She took a stance and signaled for the battle to begin.

The woman grinned charged forward. "You struggle to make sacrifice!" The woman swung her blade down. Though it was blocked by her opponent. "You struggle to see past your own ideology!" She swung her sword across. Her opponent rolled. "Your naivety of battle shall lead you to your death!" She pointed her sword at the woman before her. "Sacrifice. In every battle there is sacrifice. War will lead to death, War will lead to peace. But the true end purpose of it all is power. Who? I ask you. Who is worthy of that power? Is it the child who cries for their brothers and sisters?!" The woman advanced her assault. Colliding her blade against the others. "Or is it the warrior who has lost everything and wishes to make a change?! Answer me!"

Her opponent stared into her eyes holding her back with all their might. "The weak will perish and the strong will rise, is that your lecture?!" She pushed the woman away and stood her ground. "The child who cries for their brothers and sisters is the one who deserves that peace. The people of this world all deserve peace. Those who wish to harm, those who wish to destroy the lives of others. They are the ones who are weak." She pointed her sword at the woman. "The words you speak, they betray you. You speak as if you are in control. The battle is decided before it has begun. Strength and sacrifice. You speak of them as if they are not one in the same."

The woman pointed her sword back at her opponent. "At last you speak, at last you begin to show me what it is you truly desire. But tell me, Edelgard. Those who cry for their brothers and sisters were the ones too weak to save them." She made an attempt to swing her blade, clashing it against the other once more. "I lost those I love because I am weak, you lost your siblings because you were all weak. So tell me!" She leaned forward with her blade, showing more strength than before. "Tell me what it is you truly desire, tell me what it is you are fighting for."

Edelgard attempted to hold her own but struggled greatly. "I fight for unity! I fight to save those I care for and all of the Empires people! You speak of pain and loss and yet how many lives have you yourself taken?!" Edelgard leaned in staring into the eyes of the woman, showing a burning rage and resolve. "You toppled the church of Seiros, you defeated King Dimitri and the Alliance leader Claude. You have so much blood on your hands one could drown just by touching them!"

The two stared down at one another, the flames of their resolve bursting through their blades.

"The blood on my hands is that of a true warrior. I fought, I toppled, I killed. The oceans of blood on my hands, you shall be the next to be a part of it!" The woman jumped back and took a stance. "I am the chosen warrior of the goddess, I am the one worthy to rule this land. I am the one capable of defeating anyone who stands in my way! The woman who cries for her brothers and sisters, is nothing compared to the Warrior who shall avenge the ones she loved! Edelgard Von Hresvelg! You are the last piece in this blood soaked history. You shall learn the pain of a thousand knights. Only then!" The woman swung her blade down revealing the whip like function of it. "Only then, will they rest in peace! NOW, COME AT ME!"

Edelgard stared at the woman feeling pity in her heart and soul. "You are a fool. Blinded by the heartache and pain you feel from failure." Edelgard held her blade in front of her. "You speak of those who have perished, you speak wishing for them to find peace. It doesn't matter how many people you kill, nothing will bring her back and deep down you know that fact."

  
  


The two began to approach one another one final time. The sky roared by the sounds of thunder as rain began to pour. The dirt filled ground turned to mud. As lightning flashed the two women faced each other circling around.

"We are quite a ways from the time I first saved you, aren't we? If the three of you hadn't come running none of this would have happened." The woman clenched her blade's hilt as the whip like weapon followed behind her. "My father would still be alive, your friends and comrades wouldn't have had to perish. She would still be here, but we would have never met." The woman looked to the sky was the rain fell upon her face, she laughed, closing her eyes. "Yes, all the time has come and gone." She continued circling with her enemy. 

"You can always stop this now. Placing the blame on us, feeling regret will not resolve anything and neither will this bloodshed." Edelgard kept her composure throughout the laughter and the woman's speech. "Those times are behind us now, I am sorry for what happened to Jeralt. I am sorry for getting you involved in any of this." Edelgard stopped circling and took a step back. "You will learn the wrath of the empress. This is your last chance to surrender and accept, Dorothea is gone."

The woman opened her eyes and glared at Edelgard menacingly, a cynical grin upon her face. "Dorothea..?" The woman stopped in her tracks. "It is quite bold of you to mention that name. If I remember correctly, was it not you who was the one to send her to her death? Was it not you who insisted that the Alliance would not be an issue? Of course it wasn't, was it? You didn't kill her, you only sent her to get shot through her heart by an Arrow." The woman approached Edelgard clenching her blade and raising it into the air, a cynical smile as her eyes were filled with tears. "You all took her from me. There is always sacrifice in war, but she was never meant to be in war. Your greed caused you to betray those close to you, your arrogance was what caused all of this Edelgard, you are at fault."

Edelgard thought back to the past, remembering the mission in which Dorothea was killed. It had been her fault if she had been more vigilant the archer would have never gotten such a clear shot. "I'm sorry! I understand my mistakes of the past. But even so, we won that battle!"

"A victory is nothing if the casualties were too great!" The woman charged toward Edelgard.

Edelgard stood firmly bracing herself and eyeing the women's movements.

The woman swung her weapon, causing it to wrap around the blade of Edelgard. The woman then pulled with all her might.

Edelgard was forced to let go of her blade as it was pulled away from her leaving her defenseless.

"One would think you would be smarter Edelgard, this shall be your end!" The woman swung her blade to release the weapon that had been entangled in it. "Now perish and burn in Hell with everyone else!" The woman raised her weapon to deliver the final blow.

Edelgard stared unflinching. "A warrior who seeks vengeance and fights for revenge is often blinded by their own rage." Edelgard grinned. "NOW!" She screamed out.

The sound of a bow string being released was heard and the woman turned to see where it was, as if from nowhere an arrow flew through the sky and pierced through the woman's chest. "H-how! There was no one..." Blood began to slowly pour out of the woman's mouth as she placed her hand on the arrow and wound. "Who..." In the distance she was a young purple haired woman on a horse. "Berna..." She began gasping for air as she fell to the ground.

"You may have become a monster, but you couldn't bring yourself to kill an innocent woman, could you?" Edelgard stood over the woman. "You are truly pitiful, professor..."

The woman began to laugh. "The outcome is decided before... before the battle starts." In an act of desperation the woman took hold of her blade and thrusted it through Edelgard. "She...deserves..justice.." The woman's hand dropped to the floor as she lay gasping for air. "Dorothea, Papa...I'm so sorry. I hope I can see you both again soon.." The woman laid, bleeding out but smiling.

Edelgard stood above her ripping the blade from her body as she fell to the ground. "Our paths were both filled with blood..." She coughed up blood as she looked down to her hands. "I suppose, we were both monsters Professor..." The empress fell to the ground.

The storm continued as the two faded, a river of blood being created by the battle of two warriors.

The land of Fodlan had been lost to a war within itself. 


End file.
